Cal Trans

My hatch used to fit perfectly and close and lock with ease before a hater busted my glass on Thanksgiving Eve when we put the car on the street for guests to park! First mobile company broke their own glass while installing it while trying to get the hatch to close- they got the tail panel on way too far up!
THEN, I went to the BEST shop (and more expensive by $100) in Beverly Hills to assure I would get it done right. Now, it strikes the left side fender and you have to help it over to the right to try and get it to close. They say they followed the marks on the Genuine GM Part- the OEM glass- and that's how she goes now.
Anyone experience this situation. The gap is paper thin on the left and huge at the right, but they say the pins at the roof hinges are in correctly. The tail panel is short at one side and long on the other too, but they say it is on the guideline to the OEM glass marks to a tee!
If two glass companies in a row can't get a good fit, what the hell? GM got a good fit. It used to be sooo nice.

TheMonster

I would complain to both shops. Did you get your money back from the first one?

lethaldomestics

Well i have heard that over the years, the bodys on these cars tweak a little bit. I am not saying thats whats happened. just an idea. Maybe the car tweaked and putting on factory like hatch may not fit proper. I would try and have the adjustment made at a pro body shop. get work with a warranty.

Cal Trans

Never paid them. They broke it, said they'd find another and call and never heard from them WHICH WAS FINE WITH ME!
But these current guys are seriously rated as the best. I just wondered if GM had to ignore the marks and eyeball each one on the line if the math was off a bit between the glass marks and the tail end and the hinge placement. Wouldn't surprise me. Anyway, tomorrow they are going to try to align it better. I hope it works. It's a beautiful piece of glass they got me!

BlackenedBird

iTrader: (5)

Tell them to adjust it to FIT & ignore any marks they think they see. It is a well known fact that the hatches have to aligned by the eyes & usually the rear deck pulled loose & adjusted on the glass, for it to fit right. They are far from a "bolt on & go" item.

rarebmx

iTrader: (6)

When I first bought our car, our hatch too was offset one side by a LOT! Almost scraping the spolier. I replaced the hinges and not an issue since. I bet they did not support one side when taking it off and putting it back on. There is adjusment on the body side of the hinges from left to right almost an inch (maybe 3/4"). Get it fixed now before you need new hinges.

ZZ3 Z28

Good topic, nice to know. I've never had the rear glass off my car. Something to watch out for. Hope it works out for you.

Cal Trans

Hope no one else ever has to replace theirs either! You would not believe how much glass the car seems to be filled with when it happens. Looks like someone dumped two fifty pound bags of clear pebbles into your car and they go everywhere.
If it happens to you you'll look into the hole in your hatch glass at the mess inside and find yourself saying,
"Somebody dies."

ZZ3 Z28

A week after I got mine 1986 some cretin smashed my passenger window to get at the radar detector. I was finding glass for months afterwards. It gets every where!

BlackenedBird

iTrader: (5)

"I'm glad I have 2 spare hatches at home...."

red88tagta

iTrader: (14)

I wrote an article on here about the realignment of the glass hatch and deck. It did work out extremely well for me,,,
http://www.gtasourcepage.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=53646

91phoenix

iTrader: (5)

On my 91 there is minimal adjustment on body side top hinges and the glass has rather large holes for adjustment. On a 83 I stripped the glass has no markings for the hinges as that is the adjustment point. I would assume they could adjust it at the glass side of hinges and then unbolt and realign the trunk panel properly. It sounds as though they are unfamiliar with the back hatch glass on our cars.

red88tagta

iTrader: (14)

91Phoenix,
Can you take some really good pictures of your problem and post them here?
As in the top of the car along the rear glass line and the glass line to the quarter panels/rear fenders and lastly the fit of the rear deck alignment to the rear of the rear of both fenders/quarter panels?

red88tagta

iTrader: (14)

Also get your measuring stick out, take some measurements as close as you can of the hinge pivot points to the body and the glass. Post those too.
What I am saying here is that even 1/16 of an inch multiplied by the length of the glass can cause a major misalignment problem. This really sounds like something you can do yourself if you have access to some tools and some mechanical skills.

The last thing you want to do is even think about even trying to loosin the hinge bolts on that glass!!!

Cal Trans

Actually, talking to them I could tell they knew this car VERY well. He said in the eighties they would do three a week as people would slam the hatch so hard they'd bust 'em with such regularity that insurance drew up new coverage rates for F-bodies as owners broke more windows that on other hatchbacks of the day.
Today when I went back they said it was the worn down hatch beauty bolts- the four of them- and they really need new ones to make it fit as new. Okay- fine- buy why they just used what was there instead of mentioning that to me with a little phone call first...? So, Hawks is sending me four GM, new in the packaging, bolts now.
I think people look at me and don't think I'd know anything about anything and don't bother to bring options up.
Hundreds of dollars for glass and labor- hey, you want some ten dollar new bolts while we're at it?

91phoenix

iTrader: (5)

I wasn't trying to say I had a problem with mine. I was just noting what I have seen on these cars. I will agree that we do not want to loosen the hatch to hinge bolts except as a last resort. The only thing wrong with mine is the trunk panel needs to be readjusted as it has moved with the years. However I am not asking how to fix as I have read many many posts on this.
I assumed right or wrong that these hatch glass to hinge bolts had been apart with the glass replacement that the OP had done.

naf

iTrader: (7)

Loosening the hatch to hinge bolts is not a problem as long as the tension is off of the struts. There is, however, little alignment slack to be gained here. Most of the hinge alignment adjustment is in the hinge to body fasteners.

If you're spending the $ for new hatch bolts, you should consider replacing your hinges. Many hatch realignment issues are caused by bent hinges, especially when the owner has been conscientious enough to keep good, strong hatch struts on it. Check your body to hatch gap and alignment at the top of the hatch before pulling that decklid off.

akanitro

iTrader: (2)

If you are still having issues take it to Economy Auto Glass and talk to Dirk
Give him a call at 818-785-7198 and tell him Josh Jacob from Keyes Acura sent you. I used to be the service manager there years ago and he was my vendor and always did great work and he also worked with Rydell Chevrolet back in the day.

91phoenix

iTrader: (5)

Naf: I may be wrong about other years etc but my firebird has one of the holes for the hinge to body bolts barely larger than the bolt so almost no adjustment there without some filing. Is this normal? I noticed it on the Camaro I did so I could be wrong in assuming it is.

red88tagta

iTrader: (14)

Let's face it guys, GM made a lot of body mistakes when they threw these cars together. Go back and re-read what Naf and I have asked you to do. You may have to redrill the top of the body hinge holes to make it align properly.
As Naf said, with strong struts there will be some distortion of the hinges and bolt up area of the top of the car. (metal fatigue)

white gold 88

Per GM service manual, glass should be tightened to hatch panel to align the two to the car. Paraphrasing a little but it's basically as they have on this site about hatch alignment, using urethane where the factory did. There is no mention about marks on the glass or hatch in the service manual. Let me know if you want a copy of the section in the manual.

Ronnie Brennan

not sure if this has been answered yet as I didnt scroll down all the posts but there are the 4 bolts at the top of your hatch window. Thats where you adjust your window from left to right and vice versa. you might want to bring some help with you to move and adjust the hatch. Its pretty easy to do

you should post pictures so we would be able to see what it looks like too.. is the hatch centered correctly. Where abouts is your hatch touching?

tylercamaro

iTrader: (1)

funny enough my friend bought a 4th gen from a junkyard and rebuilt it for a driver, the car didnt have time to sit there to be processed even but the rear glass was completely shattered, now i think that 4th gens are smaller but the darn thing still filled a 5 gallon bucket and a half plus whatever was vaccuumed up.

tylercamaro

iTrader: (1)

what i would do for your fitment issue is once the glass is installed keep the 4 upper hinge bolts loose and the one for the striker panel loose shut the hatch and tighten the uppers ones when its closed after you adjust it, then open it and start messing around with your striker panel bolts. otherwise your just fighting everything and all the twisting and stuff your car has seen during its life wont be the same for your new glass. your old glass most likely got more accustomed in its positioning as you drove it more, meaning its likely that it moved around and adjusted itself to a very functional point which is what you need to acheive with the new

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

open hatch.
Remove the 2 strut bolts from the deck lid. you need a helper heavy towels and 2x4s for this. the hatch is heavy. (formula T/As with the stock aero wing are 110lbs ish)
Aline the glass to the body as close as you can and centered left to right. I can barely get my pinky between the 2
make sure the outer glass frame is tight against the glass at the bolt area.
Tighten the 4 glass to hinge nuts to factory spec.
Now the decklid to glass.
If you haven't, Remove the spoiler(areo spoiler cars), interior panels and nuts holding the deck to the glass.
you will have to carefully cut the seal between the decklid and glass if its a factory car thats never had a adjustment.
There is open cell foam and urethane sealing the decklid to the glass. (take note how the factory ran the sealant)
Once all that is removed and cleaned up reapply the sealant to glass just as the factory did and install the decklid making sure the plastic washers between the deck and glass are all there.
set hatch down (you may have to completely remove the hatch struts) and make sure its centered left to right and with the rear of the body
tighten decklid to glass nuts to factory spec. make sure the plastic washer/spacers are all in place.
Time 4 a drink of choice to admire your handy work, to finish and clean up.
I like to let the urethane dry 24hrs b4 I reinstall the hatch struts

If your getting water dripping on your rear seats from the upper interior hatch panel and while you have a helper, this is also a good time to reseal the hinge to body bolts, spacers and such.

This kind of glosses over the subject but I can do it in about 6hrs give or take. It may take longer if you have rusty parts and peices.

tylercamaro

iTrader: (1)

really they are that heavy? i didnt think it was that much just awkward in shape

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

If the struts are shot, Your only picking up half of the weight because of the hinge..
The urethane spoiler on the birds are a LOT heavier than the camaros little spoiler, even the Z28 highrise.